Women With Taller Husbands Are Happier, Says New Study

A study to be published in the March issue of Personality and Individual Differences confirms a common stereotype: Women with taller husbands are happier. Using data from 7,850 married Indonesian women, Kitae Sohn, a professor of economics at Konkuk University in South Korea, found that the preference women often profess for taller men was reflected in their mood: The greater the height difference between husband and wife, the higher the overall happiness levels the wife reported (though only for the first 18 years of marriage).

"Whatever the reasons for [a wife's] happiness, her husband's height and its correlates are long-lasting sources of her happiness," the paper reads. "It's no wonder that women want to marry tall men." (It's also worth noting that a similar study has yet to be performed in the U.S. or anywhere outside Indonesia, though Sohn predicts the results would be similar.)

Does this mean you should weed out all your below-average-height OKCupid matches? Other research might caution you against it. One preliminary study found that men who are 5'7" or below do more housework and are less likely to get divorced. Another discovered that shorter guys live two years longer on average. And yet another found that guys under the U.S. average of 5'9" had more sex. Plus, shorter guys tend to be less popular among women, according to research by one dating website, and as a result more may be available.

Oh, and in case you're worried that the length of someone's body may predict the length of you-know-what, it turns out the correlation is weak and height is not a good indicator. So in short (ha), it doesn't make sense to limit your options based on a guy's height— not that you would anyway.